The present invention relates generally to toilets, and more particularly to ventilated toilets wherein contaminated air from a toilet bowl is removed and disposed of through the sewer line to which the toilet is connected.
A substantial number of prior art references have disclosed ventilated toilets of various types. In general, these ventilated toilets can be broadly categorized into several groups according to their mode of operation. In one rather broad class of ventilated toilets, contaminated air is withdrawn from the toilet bowl and pumped through a filter or other air scrubbing device to deodorize the air prior to its being discharged. An example of this type of toilet is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,505 to Zimmerman. The advantage of this type of toilet is purported to be that the installation of additional ventilation plumbing in the walls of the building is not required. In such toilets the air scrubbing device must be periodically checked and serviced.
In another broad class of ventilated toilets, contaminated air is withdrawn from the toilet bowl and discharged to the outdoors by means of ventilation conduits leading from the toilet. An example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,495,282 to Taggart. These types of toilets require the ventilation conduits to be installed in the walls of the building, where they must be connected either to pre-existing air ventilation conduits or provided with an independent discharge outlet. In this type of ventilated toilet, installation of the ventilation conduits may require structural modification of the building.
In a third class of ventilated toilets, contaminated air is withdrawn from the toilet bowl and discharged into the sewer line to which the toilet is connected. It is an improved ventilated toilet of this latter type to which the present invention is addressed.
Prior art ventilated toilets of the latter type have generally required either the installation of a separate, external air conduit system leading to the sewer pipe under the toilet, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 2,985,890 to Baither, or extensive modification of the toilet to provide an internal air discharge conduit passing downwardly through the porcelain toilet stool to the sewer pipe through which contaminated air may be vented, as for example in the toilet disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,120,006 to Knappe. In the former approach, the installation of ventilation plumbing exterior to the toilet stool may require structural modification of the building. On the other hand, the primary disadvantage of the latter approach has been that provision of the requisite internal ventilation conduit must usually be made at considerable additional cost during the manufacture of the porcelain toilet structure, and can rarely be installed at a later date on a pre-existing toilet.
Accordingly, the object and purpose of the present invention is to provide a ventilated toilet having an internal ventilation conduit which can be formed in a conventional, standard toilet at little expense of time or labor. It is another object of the present invention to provide a ventilated toilet mechanism which can be retrofitted to existing conventional toilets.